Sunday, October 23, 2011

Every Sunday, I ask for one more Sunday. I have yet to be granted this wish. Maybe I should start smaller. How about... I wish for my sheets to magically fly from the dyer onto my bed.

Thanks to Pinterest, I found a yummy dish on Plain Chicken for Chicken Parmesan Crescents. The recipe suggests serving it with pasta, but I just had the chicken. It was absolutely yummy. The perfect dish to go with the Real Housewives of New Jersey reunion.

Preheat oven to 375. Separate crescent rolls into 8 triangles. Pour sauce into a bowl or saucepan. Place one half slice of mozzarella cheese on top of crescent roll. Dunk chicken finger into spaghetti sauce and place on top of cheese. Roll up crescent and place on cookie sheet. Repeat with remaining chicken fingers and crescents. Sprinkle each roll with garlic powder. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and top each crescent with remaining half slice of mozzarella cheese. Bake for additional 5-8 minutes. Meanwhile, heat leftover spaghetti sauce and toss with cooked pasta. Serve pasta with crescents.

Yum.

On a brighter note, I would love to have this addition in my kitchen. Adorable!

Monday, October 10, 2011

Weather is all the rage in 5th grade right now. I think I have said "precipitation"and "transpiration" (to name a few) a few thousand times. I found a few goodies on Pinterest that I tested out in my classroom.

There are oodles of more experiments out there, trust me! The most significant activity WE did this week was "The Incredible Journey". It's an activity that illustrates that there are MANY paths of the water cycle.

To save myself time and energy, I googled to see if anyone ELSE had prepared resources for this journey. Lucky for me, I found a friend who helped out and some online resources. An area school utilizes the FOSS curriculum and she sent me a few great resources! Plus, I found the following online:

After students were bouncing all over my classroom from glaciers to soil ....to animals .....and the atmosphere (to name a few). I had my students write a story about their journey. Using "A Drop Around the World" as example, I challenged the students to tap into their creativity and create their OWN story. As I'm reading their responses, I'm SO IMPRESSED! They never cease to amaze me. Here's a few for you to see for yourself!

Now, we are working on creating illustrations of the cycle! Room 52 is crazy about the water cycle!

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Holy tootsies! My blogging addiction has taken a backseat to school... and everything else in life.

As an undergraduate, I took an on-site literacy course. My course revolved around the literacy program that my school used. My former district utilizes the Four Blocks framework for literacy. One of the books we read/skimmed/browsed was "Self-Selected Reading The Four Blocks Way". One of the strategies suggested in this book is the "blessing of the book". Basically, when teachers give their stamp of approval on books students will be drawn to read those books.

While student teaching, I wanted to create a basket for special books. Of course, I needed a basket. Then, one day... my dad gave me a basket of Mizzou gear. It worked perfectly!

Now, you can find a basket sitting in my classroom with special books! Right now, it's packed full of Halloween reads. Earlier, it was filled with mentor texts for personal narratives. I wonder what will fill the basket next month?

It gets even better! Barbara at The Corner on Character nominated me for TWO awards! This must be what Sally Field felt like when she accepted her Oscar. They like me! They really like me!

I feel so honored! Thank you everyone for making me feel super special. :)

Guess what season is here? Oh yes, it's fall. The leaves are-a-changin' and it's time for me to whip up some fall crafts. I've been pinning tons of autumn crafts. I've found this little gem and decided to make my own!

Little Things Brings Smiles has an excellent post for creating your own felt fall wreath. I thought it would be fun to dabble in the natural wreath and felt flower craze.

I bought a natural brown wreath at JoAnn's for $5.00 and my sister picked up some felt for me at Wal-Mart. Then, I had to figure out how to make flowers out of felt. Lucky for me the very same blog (Little Things Bring Smiles) posted a tutorial for flowers at Felt Fun. Click here to read for yourself!

Felty and Fabulous

The wreath turned out to be a perfect gift for my Grandma. She loved it!

Happy Birthday, Grandma!

I wasn't done there! Thanks to Pinterest, I have easily 10 more crafts I neeeeeeeed to make before October 31. My MIZZOU wreath has been hanging on my classroom for awhile now and I'm needed a little Halloween spirit! Then, I found this...

Pretty Ditty made the cutest Halloween wreath and I knew I had to recreate. While watching Bridesmaids with my sister and brother-in-law... I started wrapping the 'ol straw wreath with yarn!

Click here to download her "BOO!" template. All you have to do is download the pattern and print! I had full intentions of printing my "BOO!" letters on a paper bag until I realized I didn't have any. I figured my McDonald's bag wouldn't have the same affect.. so I stuck with white cardstock.

Did I Scare Ya?

In other news....

There was a murder on my front porch.

I came home from school this evening to find my poor pie pumpkin brutally murdered. Looks like a crime scene on my front porch.